Super Star Speech

Do you ever wonder if your child’s language abilities are at age level? Do you compare your child’s speech with that of other children?

Here are a few things to ask yourself:

Is my baby vocalizing and babbling? Babies should be playing with their voices and sounds. Babies from three to six months should be “cooing,” which is vocalizing mostly vowel sounds. Babies begin “babbling” at around six months. Typical babbling sounds are, “mamama,” “baba,” “dada,” “gagaga,” etc. It is said that babies under a year old play with all the possible sounds of every language and that after a year of age, the ability to produce and even to hear sounds that are not used in the native language is gradually lost. (Isn’t that cool?)  Around a year of age, most babies are using “jargon,” sentence-like intonations. It may sound as if your child is jabbering away in another language! If a baby doesn’t babble and vocalize, or if he stops vocalizing, this could be a sign of hearing loss.

Does my baby make eye contact? Does he try to imitate sounds or facial expressions? Is he learning turn taking? (He babbles, mom babbles back or says something, he babbles again.) Even passing a toy back and forth is a precursor of conversational skills. Children actually begin to learn these early conversational skills well before they are using actual language.

Does my baby or toddler communicate his needs? Even before babies are using actual language, they should communicate by vocalizing and pointing.

Does my toddler follow simple commands? By one year of age, babies should respond to “no”  and their own names, and should give an object on request. By eighteen months, children should be able to point to one to three body parts and follow simple one-step commands.

Does my child have an age-appropriate vocabulary? Babies usually produce their first few words around one year of age. The average vocabulary of an eighteen-month-old is 50 words.  By twenty-four months, a child’s expressive vocabulary averages about 200 words. Children vary in their development, but if your child is more than six months behind these norms, there may be cause for concern.

Is my toddler putting words together into sentences? Toddlers typically begin using two-word phrases at about eighteen months. If a child is not doing this by age two, he may be considered delayed in language skills. The typical child  is producing three to four-word sentences at  twenty-four months.

If you have any concerns about your child’s language development, please consult a speech pathologist. Children develop at different rates, and your child may be completely normal, but it is very important to catch potential problems early, since language disorders can impact socialization and future educational performance. Often, public schools will even provide free services for preschoolers.

This review of Super Star R and L was written by Denise at Got Chai?.

I never even considered the idea of speech therapy until I had my son, Ethan.

Ethan (11) was a late-talker. He didn’t say any words outside of “mama” and “dada” until he was 2 years old. Instead he would make this odd “glug-glug” sound in the back of his throat. Kind of like a scene in a movie where the hero is trying to talk with a gag in his mouth. Hard to explain, sorry.

Fast forward to age 2. He’s finally stringing 2-3 word sentences together. Age 3, he’s got the sentences down but he doesn’t articulate his words well—at all. Instead of saying “Let me see!” it would come out, “Lemme heeee!” The word please would come out “pwease”, Sierra would come out “Wawa”. This continued long past the age of 6 when Ethan then developed a severe stutter. (Poor guy inherited a double-whammy. Dean had the same articulation issues as a kid, and I stuttered. In fact, at times I still do. So does my father.)

When he was about 6 years old, we enrolled him in speech therapy. Those lessons helped quite a bit with the stutter and boosted his confidence. But eventually the money ran out and the clinic itself closed. They didn’t get a chance to address his R/L issues.

Enter our latest review product, Super Star Speech: Super Star R and L, by Deborah Lott.

This was a product I had looked at once before, but dismissed it thinking that an E-book wouldn’t be all that effective. (Boy, was I wrong!)

Each of this book’s 61 pages is filled to the brim with drills, activities, games and teaching tips designed specifically to help parents correct their child’s articulation issues at home.

Although the author does stress that her program is not to be used as a substitute for proper speech therapy (especially for things like stuttering), her program does make an excellent starting point and/or therapy supplement. The E-book may also be used as a supplement to Deborah Lott’s Super Star Speech–Speech Therapy Made Simple program.

Our Impressions

Super Star R and L made it very clear to see where I had gone wrong in my attempts to help my son. Most of the time, I’d say things like, “Try it like this: Rrrr!”, which of course he would do with little to no success. I was frustrated because I couldn’t understand why he couldn’t “do as I do”, and he was frustrated trying to master something that seemed impossible.

But then in the book, Deborah explains how the sounds are actually made by curling or flattening the tongue. (Duh! I didn’t even think about that!) There are several exercises that both parent and child can do together. Later when I had Ethan perform the exercises in front of the mirror, it made such a huge difference!  Now he was seeing what I was saying, and I was finally able to help him make that brain/tongue connection. Click!

I also love how everything is written without the use of fancy make-you-wanna-scratch-your-head-and-say-huh? jargon. Everything is simple to understand, easy to use, and fun to work with. (And effective. Can’t forget effective.)

Ethan still has trouble if he’s not actively thinking about what he’s saying. But I’m confident that this product will help him overcome at least some of his speech challenges in the months to come.

Super Star R and L is available for $18.95 spiral bound or for $12.95 for the E-book through the author’s website Super Star Speech.com.

I absolutely recommend this program as a gentle, effective introduction to speech therapy. The author’s tone is one of caring and concern, and the lessons are fun for a variety of ages. Two thumbs up!

To read what my fellow Crew members had to say about this product, please click here.

*As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received a copy of this product for free in exchange for an honest review. No additional compensation was provided and the thoughts expressed in this post are my own.*

Although, as I have said before, children do develop at different rates and sequences, some sounds are easier to produce and are usually mastered at earlier ages. The sounds labial (lip) sounds, p, b, and m, are probably the easiest. N, t, and d are also easy sounds that most children master very early. Think of a child’s first words….mama, dada, ball (without the “l”). Other early words often have these sounds substituted for more difficult sounds: “tat” for “cat,” or “du” for “juice.”

By age 3, most children have mastered m, p, b, and n.  By 3 1/2, they are also correctly producing t, d, k, g, w, y, and ng in their speech. To see more detailed information on speech and language development at various ages, visit these links:

Articulation Sounds Chart

Speech and Language Development Chart

Many young children have trouble making the “L” sound. The most common error is substituting a “W” for “L.”  Some children may use “Y” for “L” or omit the “L” altogether. Children should be able to produce L in conversation by age 5.

The “L” sound is produced by placing the tongue tip behind the upper front teeth, against the gum ridge.  The sides of the tongue are lowered in order to allow the voice to pass around the sides of the tongue.

Tips:

1. Model the correct placement of the tongue, using a mirror. Touch the gum ridge with a spoon or popsicle stick to instruct the child where to make tongue contact.
2. Practice raising and lowering the tongue tip to strengthen the tongue and develop awareness.
3. Have the child open his mouth widely, sustain an “ah” sound while raising his tongue tip to the L position.
4. Practice L vowel babbling…. Lalala, loolooloo, leeleelee. You may find that the L is easier to produce with one vowel over another. Practice the easier syllables first.
5. Compare the tongue tip sounds. Have the child practice: “tee, dee, nee, lee,” etc.
6. If the child substitutes W for L, gently spread the child’s lips to discourage him from rounding them when producing L.

Once the child can produce an L sound consistently in isolation or in a short syllable, have him practice it at the beginning of words, such as light, lamp, let, and lip.

My book, Super Star R and L, includes more helps for teaching the L sound, including picture cards, practice activities, and games.

Many children go through normal periods of disfluency around ages 2-4. This usually occurs during periods of rapid vocabulary acquisition. Children typically repeat words and syllables, especially when excited or talking rapidly. In some children, this normal developmental disfluency develops into true stuttering, which can be a lifelong struggle. The trick for speech pathologists is to identify which children would benefit from therapy in order to “cure” or minimize the problem early. Almost all stutterers begin stuttering before the age of five and it is very important to begin therapy early to remediate the problem.

We are all disfluent at times. We may repeat words, say, “uh” when trying to gather our thoughts, or we may prolong a sound while beginning a word. These disfluencies can be more prevalent in preschoolers.

Some examples of normal disfluencies are:

1. repeating whole words
2. repeating syllables
3.prolonging the first sound of a word.

If these speech behaviors are not excessive and do not last for more than a few months, there is probably not much cause for concern. If they are long-lasting or interfere significantly with communication or are causing the child frustration, however, a speech evaluation would be advisable.

Some examples of abnormal disfluencies are:

1. Use of the schwa vowel in repetitions (bu-bu-bu bat instead of ba-ba-ba-bat)
2. Tension in the body or around the mouth.
3. Getting “stuck” on words, blocking.
4. Frustration with or avoidance of speech

If you see any of these speech behaviors, it is much less likely that your child will outgrow his disfluencies without speech therapy.

What Can I Do?

Whether your child is actually stuttering, may be beginning to stutter, or is experiencing normal disfluencies, there are some things that you can do to help.

1. Avoid showing and frustration or impatience with your child’s speech.
2. Try to minimize stressful speaking situations for your child.
3. Do not react negatively to your child’s speech or label it as “stuttering.”
4. Don’t tell your child to “slow down.” Instead, model relaxed, slower speech yourself. Speak slowly, especially easing slowly into the first word of a sentence.

If you have concerns, please consult a speech pathologist who can ease your mind, give you suggestions, or suggest speech therapy if needed.

A wonderful source of information about stuttering is the Stuttering Foundation of America. This non-profit organization produces free and inexpensive resources for speech-pathologists, parents, and children for the prevention and improved treatment of stuttering. I highly recommend this resource.

In their first year, well before they say their first real words, babies babble many different sounds  as they experiment with their voices. Supposedly, babies actually produce and experiment with ALL of the sounds, including those not in their native languages. As they mature, immersed in their native language, they start limiting themselves to only the sounds that they hear and eventually lose the ability to even hear many sounds in other languages. When I was visiting in Korea, I would try to imitate a word, to be told repeatedly, “No!”  And they would say the word again. I thought was repeating the word I was hearing! Apparently not! You are probably aware that Asians often confuse the sounds “l” and “r.” That sound is the same in their languages and they actually cannot hear the difference.

This is why, if you want your child to speak fluently and without an accent in a second language, he must be exposed to it very young in life.

“TH” is a sound that many children have trouble producing, but it is a very easy sound to teach. There are actually two TH sounds. One is voiceless, as in the word, “bath.” The other is voiced, as in the word, “that.”  The voiceless TH is usually mastered by age 5 or 6, but the voiced TH may still be mispronounced by many children until age 7.

TH is produced by protruding the tongue slightly between the front teeth and blowing. The voiced TH is produced the same way, but uses the voice instead of the breath.

Tips:

Demonstrate TH using a mirror. Instruct the child to “bite your tongue and blow.”

If the child substitutes F or V for TH, draw his attention to the use of the tongue and teeth to make the sound. The teeth and lip should not make contact. Practice “f-th-f-th” to contrast the two sounds. If necessary, gently push the lower lip out of the way.

To teach the voiced TH, instruct the child to imitate the voiceless TH and to “turn his voice on.” It may be taught by having him say “zzzz,” then gradually move his tongue forward to between the teeth.

Have your child practice the TH in isolation until it is easy for him. Then have him try it at the beginning of words, such as thing, thick, thunder, this, or that.

My book, Super Star Ch, J, and Th contains many other helps, practice activities, picture cards, and games to help you teach your child the TH sound.

Did you know?

-8 to 9% of children have speech sound disorders. By first grade, 5% have noticeable speech disorders.

-Most children with articulation disorders have no other handicaps or causative factors.

-More than 3 million Americans stutter. The highest prevalence of stuttering is between the ages of 2 and 6 and fewer than 1% of adults stutter.

-About 7.5 million Americans have voice disorders.

-Between 6 and 8 million people in the US have language disorders.

-Articulation, language and stuttering disorders and autism are 2 to 4 times more likely to occur in boys than in girls.

Source: NIDCD

Toddlers vary widely in their language skills. Some speak in complete sentences while others are still using single words. Much of the variation is simply due to temperament and individual development, but a child’s environment and adult stimulation can help these skills along. Here a some ideas to use with normal-developing toddlers and with older children who have delayed language skills:

-Call out action words for the child to follow: sit, jump, kneel, walk, stop…

-Sing action songs with your child–”Where is Thumbkin?”, “Ring Around the Rosie,” “London Bridge,” “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” and so on. A favorite of my children was “Wheels on the Bus.” I know I sang it hundreds of times with them! I am a big fan of incorporating music and language.

-Play hide and seek with objects. Let the child see you hide the object, then ask, “Where is ___?” and have him find it. Then hide the object without the child watching, but leave it partly exposed. This will help him become familiar with new vocabulary.

-Make scrapbooks of different types of items–food, animals, action words, and so on, cutting pictures from magazines. Pages could also be made for adjectives–cold, smooth, pretty, etc. Older children can help with the cutting and/or gluing.

-Have the child follow two-part commands. “Turn around, then clap your hands.” “Run to the kitchen and pick up a spoon.” Then work up to three-part commands.

-Spread picture cards showing different categories across the table. Ask your child to “find all the things we eat” or “find all the animals.”

-Require the child to use his best language when he wants something. “More.” “Cookie, please.” or “I want to read a story.”

-Expand upon the child’s utterances. If he says, “cookie,” say “Want cookie, please.” Just hearing the expanded form of his phrase will encourage him to expand it next time.

-Teach body parts and pronouns by naming, “my nose,” “your nose,” and so on.  Ask, “Whose neck is this?’ Model the correct answer if this is difficult for the child.

-Talk to your child! Explain what you are doing. Explain his world to him. Have him help you with simple chores while you talk. Ask him questions.